Of course “gamers” is a broad brush, and different gamers are going to want different kinds of tables. My apartment mate and I once had a table made from 2 4x8 sheets of particle board ripped lengthwise, a couple of sawhorses and some 2x4s It stored behind the couch, but when assembled, we had a table 8’ long and up to 6’ wide. Which sure beat playing on a 4’x4’ table at the Games Workshop store, where most games consisted of “line up all the figures on opposite edges of the table, move once and fire until somebody loses.”
–Which is a long story to say that miniatures people are going to value variable width more than RPG players or board gamers. Different gamers are going to want different things. I just wish that I had space in my current house to set up mega civilization. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/184424/mega-civilization

I helped build the gaming table we use in our house a few years back; we bought two very cheap tables from IKEA and used those as the base, with the tabletop being just a “cap” placed atop them, which makes it easier to move around as needed. We sandwiched a few layers of boards and made a well in the middle for gaming; with the top lid placed on it, it’s the dinner table.

From what I’ve seen there’s already an intense trend for converting Ikea furnature into these sorts of tables.

Ikea would have to be dense to have not noticed it, if I have (I’ve not much interest in these things).

uniqueusername:

and smaller existing gaming table manufacturers being driven out of business.

That’s be a bit like smaller makers of fine quality furniture and cabinetry going out of business. Ikea hasn’t killed them, or much impacted their market from what I can tell. The sort of person looking for furniture at a max of a few hundred dollars an item. Is not the sort of person shopping the smaller and custom gaming tables from small builders. Prices I’ve seen are in the $1000+ range, or close enough to not matter.

Ikea operates in a different market than smaller or higher end furniture producers. What Ikea is going to knock out of the market is DIY options, kits and the like.